Amazon Launches Indian Entertainment Channel for U.S. Prime Members

Amazon is going after fans of Indian movies and TV shows with Heera, a new curated on-demand subscription service from Amazon Channels, featuring movies, serials and children’s content in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali.

The service, priced at $5 per month, will be available only in the U.S. and — as with other Amazon Channels — requires membership in the $99-per-year Prime program. It’s the second branded SVOD channel from the ecommerce giant, after it debuted the Anime Strike channel earlier this year.

Nearly all of the services in Amazon Channels are available separately without a pay-TV subscription, including HBO Now, Showtime and Starz. Amazon says the benefits of subscribing to them through Amazon Channels include the ability to watch them on over 650 compatible devices and the convenience of having access to multiple channels through one account with only one passwords to remember. Also, Anime Strike and Heera are exclusively available on Amazon Channels.

An Amazon rep declined to disclose possible future plans to make Amazon Channels available outside the U.S. The company last December launched Amazon Prime Video in 200 countries, where in most cases it’s available only as a standalone SVOD service.